Many businesses provide reservation services for customers to schedule the rental or use of goods and services offered by the business. The travel industry uses reservations to schedule airline flights, hotels, and rental cars. The moving and storage industry uses reservation services to arrange for rental and use of trucks and trailers for moving, equipment for loading and unloading, and storage units for holding customer belongs. In the self-serve moving and storage business, a customer may reserve a certain size truck or trailer and any needed moving equipment and supplies for some number of days. By making a reservation, the customer can plan the move and pick up the truck or trailer on the scheduled day with reasonable certainty that everything will be available and operational.
With the wide availability of computer communications and the use of the internet many businesses make reservations available on company websites. For example, a customer needing to reserve a rental truck may visit a truck rental company website and find a user-friendly, menu-driven webpage designed to simplify the reservation process. The webpage will include descriptions and pictures of goods and services offered by the truck rental company, alternatives and advise to assist the customer, and pricing information, all designed to make the reservation and rental process as smooth, convenient, and efficient as possible. The customer makes the reservation by entering basic information such as name, address, telephone number, email address, selection of rental equipment and supplies, pick-up location and time, drop-off location and time, and credit card number.
The customer has many choices in reserving rental equipment. One of the more common reservation requests made to the truck rental company is to rent a truck and/or trailer for moving customer belongings. Sometimes the customer wants to reserve a rental truck to tow the customer's trailer. Sometimes the customer wants to reserve a rental trailer to be towed by the customer's vehicle. The customer may want to reserve both the rental truck and rental trailer in support of the planned move. The customer may already have the truck and trailer and simply need moving supplies and towing advice.
In selecting the rental equipment from the truck company website, the customer may have a good idea of the moving task at hand and the available budget and selects a certain size and capacity truck and/or trailer accordingly. However, the truck rental company generally has very little insight into the customer's moving plans. Moreover, the customer does not always convey all information to the truck rental company which is material and relevant for a trouble-free rental experience. For example, the customer may reserve a small truck without disclosing the fact that the rental truck will be used to tow a large customer trailer. For the customer, price may be the primary consideration. If the rental truck is under-rated to tow the customer's trailer, the customer can experience problems in route. Alternatively, the customer may rent a large trailer and arrive to pick up the rental trailer with an under-rated vehicle. Depending on the circumstances, the truck rental company technician may be compelled to look-up customer vehicle ratings and possibly deny the rental based on safety and liability issues. Compatibility issues between the tow vehicle and the vehicle to be towed are either not addressed or are only considered at the time that the rental equipment is picked up, which is a difficult time to bring up problems.
One type of rental trailer used to tow customer vehicles is known as a tow dolly or auto transport. The tow dolly is the two wheel version where the back wheels of the customer's vehicle being towed run on the road. The auto transport is the four wheel version which supports the entire customer vehicle to be towed. There are prior experiences and issues, known to the truck rental company, with using tow dollies and auto transports. For example, certain vehicles are known to scrape bottom when loading onto the tow dolly. Other vehicles cannot open their doors without banging the sides when loaded on the auto transport. The customer may become irritated if these issues are not disclosed up front, especially if actual or perceived damage ensues.
Even if the reservation agent makes inquiries regarding the customer's vehicle and/or trailer and moving intentions, the customer may not understand the questions or know the requested information. The reservation agent may not be able to translate the customer's answers into further questions to determine whether the overall moving plan is viable. The truck rental company can lose sales because the reservation agent and customer have difficulty communicating and cannot reach accord.